Who appointed Terry R. Means?

President George H.W. Bush appointed Terry R. Means to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1991.

Was Terry R. Means appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Terry R. Means was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Terry R. Means's confirmation vote?

Terry R. Means was confirmed by voice vote on October 31, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Texas / Appointed 1991 / Senior status since 2013

Terry R. Means

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed by voice vote, Terry R. Means is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law (now Dedman School of Law) in 1974. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1948 · age 78
Appointed by: George H.W. Bush, 1991
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Southern Methodist 1971 · Southern Methodist Law (now Dedman School of Law) 1974
Succeeded: David Owen Belew Jr.
Succeeded by: Ada Elene Brown

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1991	Northern District of Texas succeeded David Owen Belew Jr.	G.H.W. Bush (R)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Southern Methodist University	B.A.	1971
Southern Methodist University School of Law (now Dedman School of Law)	J.D.	1974

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Means was assigned 10,952 district-court cases (1986–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 171 days across 10,715 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas30%

Contract14%

Civil rights12%

Personal-injury torts11%

Other civil matters7%

Other federal statutes6%

Other20%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 434 of Means’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 329 were affirmed, 61 reversed or vacated, and 44 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Means authored 87 published opinions for the court (1992–2011). Most cited: Dos Santos v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. District (52 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2009	Dos Santos v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. District	651 F. Supp. 2d 550	52
2003	Western Rim Investment Advisors, Inc. v. Gulf Insurance	269 F. Supp. 2d 836	41
2006	Arista Records LLC v. Greubel	453 F. Supp. 2d 961	25
1992	Cross v. Bankers Multiple Line Insurance	810 F. Supp. 748	25
2009	BNSF Railway Co. v. OOCL (USA), Inc.	667 F. Supp. 2d 703	15
2001	United States v. Johnston	267 B.R. 717	13
1994	Walker v. Health Benefit Management Cost Containment, Inc.	860 F. Supp. 1163	12
2008	In Re RadioShack Corp. ERISA Litigation	547 F. Supp. 2d 606	11
2002	Texas Committee on Natural Resources v. Van Winkle	197 F. Supp. 2d 586	11
1996	Beal Bank, S.S.B v. Way Apartments, D.T. (In Re Way Apartments, D.T.)	201 B.R. 444	11
2006	Bittick v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc.	419 F. Supp. 2d 917	10
2003	United States v. Medica-Rents Co.	285 F. Supp. 2d 742	10
2009	Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. American General Life Insurance	670 F. Supp. 2d 555	9
2009	Isenberg v. Chase Bank USA, N.A.	661 F. Supp. 2d 627	9
2003	Hamm v. Allstate Insurance	286 F. Supp. 2d 790	9

Showing the 15 most-cited of 87 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Terry R. Means?: President George H.W. Bush appointed Terry R. Means to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1991.
Was Terry R. Means appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Terry R. Means was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Terry R. Means's confirmation vote?: Terry R. Means was confirmed by voice vote on October 31, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Terry R. Means on?: Terry R. Means is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

34 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).